Revelation Today

This edition, we would like to share with you some of what happened during May.

There have been wonderful stories filtering through of how God has used relationships to draw people to Him.

Revelation Today could fit into our very lifestyles: sharing Christ with others should never be just an event.

A Lifestyle not an Event

We have such a wonderful message of hope for a frightened world. Where other religions insist that you have to try really hard to be something or it will happen all over again in the next life, or you have to pray a particular way or perform other religious rituals at specific times and in certain ways and still you can only hope you will be good enough… we have a loving Saviour who has done it all for us and just asks us to love and follow Him… really He has done it all except accept the gift on our behalf – we have to do that. Why would we not want to tell those we care for about such love? Why wouldn’t we want to share such a wonderful thing with our associates? Why would we be content to watch our neighbours struggle with life and with illness and death, and not help them? Be there for them. Love them. And let the Holy Spirit use us to reach them?

Sharing Christ with others should be a way of life. Revelation Today was just that – part of our church lifestyle for the month of May and the months preceding it. But we pray that Revelation Today has become part of our DNA and that we will continue to see its effect as we seek to find new ways to share our wholistic Biblical message of hope.

Over the last few years, church members across Melbourne became increasingly involved in preparation

for Revelation Today. This involvement was changing their lives. They were learning how to be courageous speaking up for their convictions. They were learning how to share Christ through service, through door knocking, through prayer.

Many discovered the blessing of volunteering: letterboxing; helping with various community events through their local churches; helping with Dinners with Gary Webster and Gary Kent; running special Easter programs to which they had invited their friends; and as May commenced, committing to four times per week attending and helping at the Revelation Today seminars.

This was no small task, and we would like to take this opportunity to thank each one of those volunteers. From car parking assistants to greeters. From signing in and registering attendees to hosting the Kids Club at each venue where the children attending were, in child friendly creative and fun ways, taught the basics of what their parents were learning about. Not to mention performing, acting as ushers, photographers, the audiovisual crews and camera operators…

The time and effort spent, while exhausting, has been exhilarating and most would agree that they have been blessed by what they have been involved in over the last few years. God is good that way.

How Revelation Today Played Out...

In the weeks preceding May, there was television advertising promoting Revelation Today and flyers were distributed, some by hand and some through the postal service. Contacts from the Adventist Media Network and people invited to the Dinners were also invited along with church members giving personal invitations to their own friends and contacts.

Revelation Today was hosted at four sites across Melbourne, with each site running four sessions per week. John Bradshaw presented at the South East site (The Drum, Dandenong), which was also livestreamed from six

different social media platforms, and the Western site (Gilson College) while Eric Flickinger was at the Eastern (The Pavilion, Box Hill) and the Northern (South Morang) sites. Additionally one of our churches hosted locally, with the recordings from the Drum being played the following day, and one of our country pastors presented the seminars himself, with material kindly provided by It is Written.

At all the meetings John and Eric presented biblical truth to guests who were eager to hear. As challenging topics were shared, guests were given an opportunity to respond. Across all venues there were 159 guests who made a public decision for Jesus in

either baptism or re-baptism. There were also 164 guests who made a commitment to start keeping the Sabbath. One man said, “Eric, you’ve convinced us of what the Bible says and we now have to work out how we can keep the Sabbath.”

The clear overall impression was that God was at work during these sessions, and everyone worked well together, to God’s glory.

Of the four main venues, The Drum had the largest capacity (630). There was still some overflow and they were able to accommodate this with screens in several smaller rooms. Extra sessions were conducted at the Pavilion to accommodate the initial overflow there.

The layout of the Pavilion was different to the Drum, being long and narrow, however as the meetings progressed it was felt that this helped create a more intimate atmosphere and a sense of connection with Eric as he was close and on the same level.

A marquee was the venue at Gilson College - rather daunting for the beginning of winter, it was soon perceived as a blessed venue – it was plenty warm enough with the heaters and there was lots of space for connecting with each other after the program, over light refreshments. We are so grateful to the Gilson school community, which helped in many ways through out the program, not the least of which was helping with the parking.

The main difference with the South Morang venue (Plenty Ranges Arts and Convention Centre) was the seating arrangement. Attendees were seated at round tables, and began building connections almost immediately, with time spent after the seminars chatting across the tables. Most tables had an allocated host who was kept busy handing out various things, facilitating and making people feel welcome – in general adding to the whole atmosphere, to such an extent, some guests wanted to know which churches their hosts attended as that was the one they wanted to go to.

Highlights throughout the program included special musical items and the Sabbaths that the presentations were held at local churches and attendees visited with members. The ABC store attended each venue for a session and there was a very old Bible display shared among the four sites for attendees to look through as well.

From Now on…

As we have mentioned, some of the contacts have already followed Christ’s example of baptism. Still more are undergoing studies, and our bible workers will continue to be employed throughout the remainder of the year.

An exciting plan that is being worked out as we are preparing this edition is to bring one of the speakers back in November and utilise both regional meetings, adding several sessions in between. It will be a time of mingling between church members and newly interested people, a time to invite your friends who perhaps were not

interested in Revelation Today but by November may be… a time to celebrate and praise God for how He is moving across Victoria…

And riding on the wave of our own new found zeal for sharing Christ’s love, having put ourselves on the line during this last year or so, local churches will continue to build bridges with their communities, friends and family, sharing the love of God.

This is going to be a time of growth for our church families and as you read this, please pray for a heightened awareness of these new friends coming through your doors. The Holy Spirit

needs you to be His arms hugging them in love and acceptance; His feet, walking with them in their journey, accepting and encouraging them. Doing life together. The devil is going to be waging full on war, targeting them and trying to destroy their new found joy and commitment to follow Christ. He is going to be doing his utmost to hinder the changes they are making in their lives and their efforts to share their new passion with their own family and friends. They will and do need the compassion and support of an understanding extended family – a church family… you.

IntraVic